NEW DELHI: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday announced a partial mobilisation of 3 lakh reservists to start pre-emptive military operations in Donbas, weeks after Ukrainian troops managed to recapture vast swathes of its territory from Russian invaders.
This is the first such call-up in Russia since World War II. Timed as it was a day after four regions in Ukraine Luhansk, Kherson, partly Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk decided to hold referendums on amalgamating themselves with Russia, Putin’s attempt to swallow them by weaponising the democratic exercise was clear.
The votes are to be held between September 23 and 27. “Primarily those who served in the armed forces will be called up,’’ the Russian President said. Ahead of his seven-minute televised address, Putin signed an executive order for the immediate mobilisation. Putin also warned he wasn’t bluffing over using everything at his disposal to protect Russia, which was an apparent reference to his nuclear arsenal. He also accused the West of making attempts to weaken, divide and destroy Russia.
“The West has used indiscriminate Russophobia as a weapon... primarily in Ukraine, which was designed to become an anti-Russia bridgehead,” he said. A spokesman for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said conscripts sent to Ukraine would face a similar fate as ill-prepared Russian forces who were repelled in an attack on Kyiv in the first days of the war. US national security council spokesperson John Kirby said Putin’s speech is “definitely a sign that he’s struggling.”
Panic, rush to fly out
The partial mobilisation triggered panic in Russia with a large numbers of people rushing to book one-way tickets out of the country. Flights filled up quickly and the prices of tickets zoomed